A Random Thought

Dave Killion — May 6, 2013

Some time ago, Victoria Libertarian Book Club members were discussing the possibilities of a libertarian society. I declared that involuntary poverty would quickly become a thing of the past. This was met with some robust resistance, the argument being that certain handicaps and injuries would render some people unable to care for themselves, through no fault of their own. At the time, this struck me as sound, and I walked my declaration back. I have since reconsidered.

Take, for example, children. Those in poor families are considered impoverished, but those in wealthy families are not. Yet the ‘wealthy’ children do not necessarily have more any property than do the ‘poor’ children. Rather, the status of children is determined by the amount of wealth possessed by their caregivers. This is, I think, the correct way to view the disabled, too. Given that a libertarian society would be a much wealthier society, I am confident that the resources voluntarily made available for the care of the incapacitated would be sufficiently abundant that none of them could rightly be considered impoverished. That being the case, I say again; a libertarian society would be one in which involuntary poverty is non-existent.